Italian Hours

Description

Henry James' passion for Italy led him to visit the country 14 times and to set much of his best known fiction in Venice, Florence and Rome. Despite this, his "Italian Hours" essays have never received much attention. They were written on travels in Italy from 1872 to 1909. This edition sets out to make these essays accessible by establishing their historical, political, literary and artistic context. It aims to help modern readers appreciate that the Italy they envision when they read works such as "The Portrait of a Lady" or "The Wings of the Dove" is not necessarily the same Italy that fascinated Henry James.

Henry James(1843-1916), born in New York City, was the son of noted religious philosopher Henry James, Sr., and brother of eminent psychologist and philosopher William James. He spent his early life in America and studied in Geneva, London and Paris during his adolescence to gain the worldly experience so prized by his father. He lived in Newport, went briefly to Harvard Law School, and in 1864 began to contribute both criticism and tales to magazines. In 1869, and then in 1872-74, he paid visits to Europe and began his first novel,Roderick Hudson. Late in 1875 he settled in Paris, where he met Turgenev, Flaubert, and Zola, and wroteThe American(1877). In December 1876 he moved to London, where two years later he achieved international fame withDaisy Miller. Other famous works includeWashington Square(1880),The Portrait of a Lady(1881),The Princess Casamassima(1886),The Aspern Papers(1888),The Turn of the Screw(1898), and three large novels of the new century,The Wings of the Dove(1902),The Ambassadors(1903) andThe Golden Bowl(1904). In 1905 he revisited the United States and wroteThe American Scene(1907). During his career he also wrote many works of criticism and travel. Although old and ailing, he threw himself into war work in 1914, and in 1915, a few months before his death, he became a British subject. In 1916 King George V conferred the Order of Merit on him. He died in London in February 1916. John Auchard is a professor of English at the University of Maryland at College Park, and the editor ofThe Portable Henry James.